For
the third year in a row, Trumbull Odyssey of the Mind Teams have advanced to the
World Finals.
On Saturday March 15th, four Odyssey
teams from Trumbull competed in the State Tournament in Durham, CT. Booth Hill's
Technical Team placed 1st in Division I, Hillcrest's Performance Team placed 1st
in Division II, and Hillcrest's Classics Team placed 2nd in Division II. Hillcrest's
Technical Team placed 10th in Division II. The three winning teams will be heading
to the University of Maryland, May 31 - June 3, to compete in the World Finals.
 |
From
left, front row, are members of the three 2008 Odyssey of the Mind teams advancing
to the World finals: Brent Kaiserman, Michael Zabin, Avery Collins, Megan Kelly,
and Madison Kustom. Second row: Matthew Freed, Ellen Carpenter, Rory Morrison,
and Alyssa Zabin. Third row: Josh Pavel, Jenna Bellofiore, Ellie Grossman, and
Magdalena Abrego. Back row: Jeremy Eckl, Owen Osborne, Anarug Chinepalli, Tyler
Bieling, Brook Hayden, and Rebecca Kaiserman. |
Odyssey
of the Mind is an international problem solving competition for students of all
ages. The program is designed to stimulate and promote children's natural creativity.
Participants are encouraged to seek creative and varied solutions to problems
- they are taught to think outside the box. The program has two parts. Each team
selects one of five long term problems and works from October through March to
create a solution. The Odyssey program requires that team members solve all aspects
of the problem entirely on their own without any outside assistance from coaches
or parents. The role of the coach is to help the team develop problem solving
strategies and skills and to expose the team to methods, techniques and materials.
During the competition, the team presents its solution to the long term problem.
The solution is evaluated according to specific problem criteria and following
the presentation, the judges question the team members about their solution.
The
second part of the competition evaluates the team's spontaneous problem solving
skills. Throughout the year the team practices solving various types of short
term problems that require either individual verbal responses, a coordinated group
response, the building of a structure or the accomplishment of a task. At the
competition, the team enters the Spontaneous room alone and is asked by the judges
to solve one of these types of problems within a specific time frame.
The
team's score on their long term solution is combined with its spontaneous score
to determine which teams will advance to the World Finals. Only the top two teams
in each division for each problem are invited to represent the State of Connecticut
at the World Finals. More than 800 teams from the United States and around the
world are expected to compete at this year's World Finals in Maryland.
This
is the second year Booth Hill's Team has qualified for the World Finals. The team
of 5th graders includes Avery Collins, Matthew Freed, Megan Kelly, Madison Kustom,
Josh Pavel, Rory Morrison, and Michael Zabin. This is the third year in a row
for Hillcrest's team of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders comprised of Tyler Bieling,
Ellen Carpenter, Anarug Chinepalli, Jeremy Eckl, Brooke Hayden, Brent Kaiserman,
and Owen Osborne. Hillcrest's first year team of 8th graders comprised of Magdalena
Abrego, Jenna Bellofiore, Ellie Grossman, Rebecca Kaiserman, and Alyssa Zabin
will make its debut at World Finals in Maryland.
The three
World Finalist Teams will be raising funds to help send them to Maryland. Contributions
may be made payable to Hillcrest Middle School PTA, re: Odyssey of the Mind World
Finals.
